Using the Icon programming language under AlphaLinux

Updated 8/28/1999

This document explains how to download, compile, and install the Icon programming language on the Alpha-Linux platform.

Icon is a free, high level, cross platform, general purpose programming language that uses the virtual machine concept. It also possesses extensive graphics functions as well as support for X windows and MS windows. It even comes with a visual interface builder (VIB).

The current release of Icon is 9.3.2 and fully supports Linux running on 64 bit Alpha's. More information on Icon and can be obtained from the following links:

The Icon home page
Unicon home page Unicon is a version of Icon with a superset of POSIX extensions.
A Glimpse of Icon, Linux Gazette, April 1998
A Glimpse of Icon, Linux Journal, July 1998, Pg. 62
Information on how to subscribe to the Icon mailing list.

Getting the sources

For the rest of the document I'm going to assume the installer is logged in as root and Icon will be installed in /usr/local/icon.

The following links point to the sources required for a complete install.

Sources for Icon.
bipl.tgz Base library package for Icon.
gipl.tgz Graphics library package.
info.tgz Build scripts for the librarys.

Unpacking the sources

First create the Icon directory. mkdir /usr/local/icon.
Then copy the unix.tgz file to /usr/local/icon.
Unzip it with gzip -d unix.tgz
Unpack it with tar -xvf unix.tar
Create a directory to hold procedures. /usr/local/icon/ilib.
Create a directory to hold the library files. /usr/local/icon/ipl.
Copy bipl.tgz, gipl.tgz, and info.tgz into the ipl directory and unzip and untar.

Compile the sources

Change to the top level Icon directory.
Type make X-Configure name=alpha_linux.
Type make Icon. (Capitol letters matter !)

Setup the environment

Fire up your text editor and insert the following into .bash_profile

export IPATH=/usr/local/icon/ilib
export LPATH=/usr/local/icon/ilib
export FPATH=/usr/local/icon/bin

Then logout and log back in so the environment will be set.

Set the symbolic links to the binarys.

Switch into /usr/local/bin then type-
ln -s /usr/local/icon/bin/icont icont
ln -s /usr/local/icon/bin/iconx iconx

At this point you can run Icon from a regular user account as long as the environment in .bash_profile is set (see above) and /usr/local/bin is in the search path.

Build the Icon procedures and program library

Jump to the /usr/local/icon/ipl directory and perform the following steps. The following must be performed in the proper order or the library procedures and programs will not all be translated properly.

Copy the contents of icon/ipl/incl to icon/ilib
Copy the contents of icon/ipl/gincl to icon/ilib
Type ./Ucode
Copy the contents of icon/ipl/procs to icon/ilib
Type ./Ugcode
Copy the contents of icon/ipl/gprocs to icon/ilib
Type ./Icode
Type ./Igcode

If everything builds ok, Icon should be properly installed.

Try it out !

Fire up X and in a xterm cd to /usr/local/icon/ipl/gprogs and type ./mandel1. A window should open and the mandelbrot set should be generated. If the above example worked out ok you should be all set to start exploring Icon on your own. The Icon program library and the Icon home page contain a wealth of information to help you get started programming.

Alpha-Linux specific Icon notes.

With the release of version 9.3.2 Icon builds clean on 64 bit systems.

Both libffm and CPML can be compiled into Icon. To include the faster math librarys, open the file

icon/config/unix/alpha_linux/runtime.hdr

and change LIBS= -lm to
LIBS= -lffm -lm
or
LIBS= -lcpml -lm

Feedback

If you have any comments, questions specific to Icon on Alpha_Linux feel free to e-mail Tim Patti